User blog:GrandMethuselah67/World-1: The Neo-Methuselahverse
NOTE: '''This is a personal project (and work in progress). A lot of names/concepts will be reused from my previous world-building projects, but everything is ultimately new. '''Preface: '''World War 2 saw the invention of the Nuclear Bomb, which was used to end the conflict between the United States of America and Japan. Scientists did not know the effect that the two nuclear bombs would have on the atmosphere, but after using them, the world seemed completely fine. Little did they know, they had changed their universe forever. For a fraction of a fraction of a second, the nuclear bombs "tore open" reality, creating a momentary break in the overall structure of reality. Although this was for an incomprehensibly short amount of time, it was long enough for extradimensional forces to leak into reality. The first superhero appeared in 1948 after the war. This hero, the Samaritan, was incredibly powerful, able to alter the very economics of reality with his mind. His heroism and benevolence had inspired other people with powers, neohumans, to rise and defend those who couldn't help themselves. The heroes of Earth, regardless of race, creed, or nationality was united under the Samaritan. The forces of good, however, were largely opposed by a neohuman supergenius engineer called Pathrazer. His intelligence was only matched with his malevolence, and throughout this first heroic age -- called the Golden Age by historians, the world was a stage for an epic conflict between good and evil: The Samaritan, who defended the Earth and was its champion, versus Pathrazer, who wanted to dominate the rule and force it to conform to his beliefs. While a time of great heroism and great villainy, the Golden Age was also an age of rapid technological advancement. Engineer-class neohumans -- that is, neohumans with abilities relating to the construction of technology that defies the laws of physics -- had pioneered massive leaps forward in technological progress, making the modernization of mankind much faster than it was in our world. The moon landing happened in 1958, and from the moon landing, a moon colony was created. Humanity first went to mars in 1965. The Tomorrow Society, a league of multiethnic and multinational superheroes, had formed under the Samaritan to defend mankind from evil, be it terrestrial or extraterrestrial. This Golden Age ended in 1968, when the final conflict between the Samaritan and Pathrazer ended with the death of the Samaritan. The entire world was devastated, and Pathrazer went in hiding to manipulate things behind the scenes. '''From the end of the Golden Age, the Silver Age began. The Tomorrow Society disbands in 1970 due to ethnic and national tensions, as well as the lack of suitable leadership after the death of the Samaritan. Now neohumans claim national or ethnic allegiance, making social and political tensions grow. Now that the Cold War has the element of humans with superpowers, governments grow increasingly more authoritarian. Due to the growing tensions on Earth, the colonies on other planets are left to their own devices for the most part. A colony on Mars forms in 1972, and achieves independence in 1979. More space exploration, pioneered by private companies rather than governments (who are largely focused on proxy wars or halting the spread of Communism) begins, with colonies forming on the Jovian moons by 1978. In this Silver Age, superheroes become political figures as well as celebrities. They fight in wars, with the Vietnam War being the first war fought with neohumans, using a group of "superhero" mercenaries called the Iron Vanguard. This had created a devastating and terrifying precedent in human politics and war, with many superheroes quitting the job and becoming lawless mercenaries hired by various governments. The 80s sees the end of the Silver Age with the UN having most governments completely outlaw private superhero activity. Any "superheroes" are largely government employees now. In 1981, supervillain activity skyrockets due to the harsh regulation on costumed superheroes. Cold War tensions and activities grind to a halt due to the massive crime issues in each nation's borders. The beginning of neohuman feudalism marks the beginning of the Bronze Age, an age where powerful supervillains take the law into their hands and rule massive territories, with bureaucratically-choked governments still finding a way to integrate neohumans into law enforcement opposing them. This also sees the creation of a class of superheroes called "vigilantes", which are superheroes that work outside the law to oppose supervillains (and sometimes government-controlled neohumans). They are, arguably, the only reason supervillains begin to lose at all. Outside of Earth, the rapid development of the solar system begins. Independent colonies become city states or republics onto themselves, launching their own exploration efforts across the solar system. Now 1% of the human race lives off world, with half of them being born off world. The end of the Bronze Age is the beginning of the Dark Age, with an event that changes the world forever. February 18th, 1990, 'a being that scientists now call "Jotnar" had appeared off the coast of Japan. Its name is now only mentioned in fearful whispers or legends, called Kaijuu. This being, possessing overwhelming powers beyond any of the neohumans at that time, had completely sunk the nation of Japan beneath the waves, killing millions. From there, the Jotunn attacks increased exponentially, with it going from one attack per year to one attack for every seasonal change on Earth. Governments all around the world enter a state of emergency, with the wholesale destruction of multiple cities being the ''best case scenario for Jotnar attacks. Many governments and nation-states collapse either due to the influx of refugees, or plain fear and distrust in the government. As Jotnar attacks begin to happen on other planets as well, with the first Jotnar attack in Venus happening as early as 1995, the Council of Sol forms from a coalition of the remaining governments of Earth, Mars, and Venus. The entire solar system unites as the Federation of Sol. The Federation reels back old regulations on superhero activity, allowing private neohuman citizens to operate independently as superheroes again for the purpose of fighting back the Jotnar and the remaining supervillain barons. By 1996, neohuman feudalism is completely eradicated, freeing hundreds of people. In 1998, a Jotnar called the Corruption completely renders Earth uninhabitable, killing 78% of the human and neohuman population. Earth is now lost. Refugees from Earth flee to Mars and Venus, and the capital of Sola Longia is created on Mars at the base of Olympus Mons, becoming the city with the densest superhero population. 'The year is 2035. '''The New Heroic Age had begun in 2005. Things seem to have calmed down, with law and order being restored to humanity. The Department of Neonormal Affairs and their military branch, the Parahero Defense Force, had been established in order to keep private and government-sponsored superheroes accountable. Jotunn attacks still happen randomly throughout the solar system, with potential hundreds of thousands still dying on a ''good day, and colonies outright disappearing, millions dying on a bad day. Humans have learned to cope with the reality they live in. Superheroes are restored to a mostly celebrity status, though politics and corruption is rampant within superhero culture. Society: Culture: Sola Longia: Hero and Villain Teams: Villains: '''Black Spiral: As an organization, Black Spiral had existed since the early Bronze Age, though it is very different from the way it is now. Black Spiral is a secret, amoral organization that has very few members. The leader of Black Spiral is MAGNUMOPUS, who, through its predictive models and through subsuming the ego of John Ozmand, its creator, had come to know of humankind's innate psychic potential, and of the existence of the Monarchs. The purpose of Black Spiral is to make sure none of the Monarchs grow powerful enough to dominate the Psychosphere, ensuring that their game goes on for all eternity. They do this using a child called the Oracle, a level 14 Meta-type neohuman that has the ability to manipulate superpowers as a whole, and induce Contact Events with different Monarchs. Black Spiral keeps the Oracle in custody and isolation so they may monitor and control her mental state, using her to distribute Contact Events with the Monarchs randomly so that no one Monarch has more neohumans than the other. Another facet of their manipulations is governmental control. Black Spiral is the shadow government, the true controllers of the Council of Sol and the Department of Neonormal Affairs. The first team of Black Spiral, called the 1st Directorate, had been assembled for the purpose of seizing control of the government. The 1st Directorate, unfortunately, went corrupt with their power, and the result was that they became the Camarilla. Black Spiral is largely unconcerned for this development, but they do "mass produce" superheroes via human experimentation and the induction of Quantum Events to make sure the Camarilla is at bay. They also want to keep the superheroes at bay too, however, so they were responsible for the creation of Taboo. Overall, Black Spiral is devoted to the protection of the human race from the Monarchs at all costs, and as a result they operate very amorally. Because they are not superheroes or supervillains, they don't wear costumes. Black Spiral is composed mainly of Savant-type neohumans due to their increased mental abilities. Some of them have access to powers that the average neohuman wouldn't have access to. The Jotnar: Power Classification System: Threat Classification System: The Psychosphere: Gods and Pantheons: All myths are true. All pantheons exist, and all afterlives exist. Humankind has believed in gods for eons, and in the 2030s, humanity still largely holds religious beliefs, even though it is much more rare than it had been in days of old. When the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed reality, this didn't just include the existence of superpowered humans, but this also changed reality retroactively. Suddenly, all myths told by humans over the course of their existence had come true. Achilles was really invincible. Moses parted the red sea. All of these things happened, and more, including myths lost to history. The Gods had become very active as from the Golden Age onward, siring children -- many of whom became heroes and villains in their own right. Various pantheons warred in the heavens, shaking the world with their conflicts, conflicts that the heroes often had to step in and stop. Even in the 2030s, the Gods still exist, watching over humanity and causing havoc either intentionally or unintentionally. The public is largely aware of their existence, with many old pagan religions and cults being revived through the awareness of their existence. Magicians and Magic: Magicians and magick have existed for long before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the formation of the Consensus Reality. Magicians stretch back as far as civilization, but the Chaos Event had changed the game forever. Whereas magicians were limited to relatively weak and subtle events before, now magic was more powerful, more overt, allowing for more vulgar changes to reality. Magicians could now directly commune and draw from the Psychosphere (called the Empyrean in occult circles) and form contracts with the Forms, Archetypes, and Daemons that exist within. This, along with Quantum Events making Magick more commonplace, spreading it to many as opposed to just a few, led to the flourishing of the Occult Community. Magick, put simply, is the ability to commune with cosmological concepts, elements, or items, forming a "contract" which enables the magician to evoke them at the cost of a "ritual". The mechanics are simple: the magician use their inherent ability of Communion to astral project into the Psychosphere and commune with the Forms, Daemons, or Archetypes that exist within. The magician forms a contract with these abstract concepts, and thus gains a "spell", which they can use in the Phenomenal Multiverse if they perform a ritual before or after. For example, a magician that communes with the Daemon of Fire, for example, may gain a spell where they can shoot a fireball from their hands. Their ritual may be that after a certain amount of uses of the spell, they must hold an ice cube in their palm and make it melt with their own body heat. Daemons, Forms, and Archetypes: Below is the classifications of beings/entities that exist within the Psychosphere: Daemons: 'Embodiments of physical laws, elements, or forces. Daemons embody things such as fire, sound, earth, shadow, electromagnetism, and light. Daemons are different from the other classifications in the sense that they seem to have a hierarchy. There are Daemon Sultans, and below them are Daemon Princes, then Rajah, who below them have Majin, then Archdemons, then Fiends, then Imps. Daemons are called such because of their chaotic nature and general mindlessness below the Majin ranks. '''Archetypes: '''Embodiments of stories, of psychological "forms", and of psychological flaws, vices, and virtues. An example of an archetype would be the Knight in Shining Armor, the Damsel in Distress, and the Wizard. Archetypes are concepts of psychology that exist and manifest within stories, and they hold knowledge and power in their own right. Archetypes can also be ideas and theories, inner "demons" such as addiction or anger issues. Within Archetypes exist the Fae, beings of story and dream that enjoy wreaking havoc and mischief on all life in the multiverse. '''Forms: '''Embodiments of abstract concepts, such as Space, Time, Morality, or Concepts themselves. Forms are also the embodiments of objects, and all things in the Phenomenal Multiverse are reflections of these forms. If something is the Form of Time, for example, it is essentially the "blueprint" by which all time works throughout the multiverse. Magicians typically gain more powerful spells from Forms, though their very alien thinking makes them very difficult to commune with. The Three Monarchs are examples of Forms (though they are essentially Archetypes that had "ascended" to Forms). Realms within the Psychosphere: The Firmament: The Upper Heavens, the Empyrean, the Firmament. This is the domain of the Gods and the Forms that govern the Phenomenal Multiverse. This is where Gods are born, where raw creation is given shape by thought. The Firmament is essentially the World of Forms, where all things are perfect and pure. It is where existence is Platonic, and its shadows shine down upon the Phenomenal Multiverse via the Great Ray, the massive, blazing sun that exists above the sky realm. Very powerful magic resides here, and the destruction of this reality can possibly mean the destruction of the Phenomenal Multiverse. The various realms of Gods exist here as well, places such as Heaven, Olympus, and even cthonic realms such as the Underworld or Hell exist here too. Many areas of the Phenomenal Multiverse "touch" the Firmament, creating Junction Points. It is through these Junction Points that Gods or Forms are able to manifest. The Unconscious Realms of the Monarchs also exist within the Firmament, thus making the Monarchs forms themselves. They did not start out like this. Instead, they were Archetypes that evolved by devouring other Archetypes. Through this, they became Forms and thus became Nigh-Omnipotent aspects of reality, unable to directly affect the world as all things in the Firmament (except for the Gods). Pandemonium: A place of raw, untamed chaos. The domain of pure, elemental forces that take form through thought and belief. Pandemonium is the domain of the Daemons, and where the Daemon Sultans slumber, where the beings of Smokeless Flame commune with magicians and where the Majin wreak havoc on mortals. Pandemonium is a place where elements and forces are alive, filled with an alien, deliberate intelligence that can be subjugated and communed with. It is a place brimming with change and energy. When it does take a form, it is of an infinite, ever-changing landscape with mountains constantly coming up and crumbling, where thunder constantly booms and it rains glass sideways. This hellish landscape is why those in the occult community have given it the same name as the capital of Hell in Paradise Lost. It is theorized by the Occult Community that there is an "Adversary", a Daemon King that all of the Daemons serve. This theory is largely unproven, and not supported in academic occult circles. Unknown Kadath: Unknown Kadath is a collective term for all planes that exist ''outside of the above mentioned realms. The Psychosphere, unlike the Phenomenal Multiverse which is made up of 12 dimensions, is made from infinite dimensions. Unknown Kadath are these planes beyond the above mentioned planes, and hold everything that is outright bizarre. The true forms of the Monarchs reside in Unknown Kadath, yet not even they are the most powerful beings to exist within this realm. It is unknown what is truly in Unknown Kadath (hence the "Unknown" part), but theories generally sum up to "literally anything". Unknown Kadath is even home to semi-sentient universes called "Macrospheres" that exist '''entirely without a single concept. For example, there is a macrosphere without the concept of heat. Another without the concept of time, or life, or death. Category:Blog posts